Glimmer
by johnlockedinthetardis
Summary: Kind of like Maximum Ride and kind of like I Am Number Four but these characters are O.C .so, its kind of different. This is just the beginning , but if you like it I'll write more. So, ya... its the basic premise of Max Ride, but the main character was raised in a lab to be the perfect child soldier in world at war... so ya... ENJOY!
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Emma sprinted through the trees, pine needles whipping her faces as she pushed stray branches aside. Her heart raced as her breath deepened. She could hear her footsteps as she ran over rocks and tree stumps. The sounds from behind her grew dimmer and dimmer as she ran faster and longer. She couldn't stop. Not yet. Not until she was sure. Sure that her pursuers were far behind her and had given up the chase. She leaped over a tangled mess of roots as she crashed through a bush, the forest growing ever thicker around her. There was no way to know where she was going or if she was even going somewhere at all. She just ran. She ran for her freedom. For her life. And for her future.

AS she sprinted she heard the sound of running water from somewhere off in the distance. If only she could get to the source in time. Just a little bit farther. She used the last of her energy sprinting through the last of the trees, but as she passed the last one she stumbled and tripped on a rock, falling on the hard rocky ground. Her heart raced as she tried to get up, but the pain in her ankle soon overwhelmed her. She managed to stand and turn around to see the landscape in which she emerged. As she turned the sound of the ringing in her ears soon drowned the rushing water out. She turned and began to run forwards, barley stopping her before she would have tumbled over the cliff she found herself on, and into the foamy white waters at the base of the waterfall.

They would be here soon. There was no doubt in her mind. She was finished. Dead. If only she was afforded that luxury. Her breathing slowed and her vision blurred as she saw the first of them emerge through the trees. Her head throbbed as the dogs tore into her clothes, as they smiled wickedly.

She began to sleep deeper and deeper into unconsciousness, only able to make out the movement of one of their mouths before going completely under.

Chapter 1

Emma woke up to the sterile smell of a hospital and the uncomfortable touch of a hospital gown against her sore wounds. She looked around, her vision still hazy only able to make out the outlines of the room. A table, a bed, in which she was lying, a plate of "food" and a lot of wires and IV's hooked up to her arm. AS she slowly regained her vision she noticed one of them was full of blood and she quickly ripped it out of her arm, wincing as she did so. Another, full of a yellowish white liquid, most likely a tranquilizer, went into a spot farther up her arm. She yanked it our, clenching her teeth to avoid crying out.

She was back. The tests would continue. So would the people. Oh the people. How she hated the people. Their cold hands and sterile lab coats. They had done this to her. They had made her who she was. A monster. A freak. A lab experiment. Constant testing and operations. They didn't seem to care about her at all. And she definitely did not care about them. Emma looked around the room, searching for the automated calendar that was blinked from the opposite wall. The date on it read December 18, 2317. It had been a month since she tried to escape. She knew immediately why she had stayed under for so long. It was all part of their plan. Every time she escaped they found her. And they put her into a medically educed coma, each time a little longer, just so that they could test on her without her fighting back. Next to the calendar the screen flashed a news report, the headline reading, " The fighting continues. Eurasia gaining part of northern Africa as the Americas fight back." A reporter from the American capitol read a report of the world standings on territories and casualties from last weeks fighting.

The world had been at war for 15 years now, and Emma was 14. Genetically engineered to be the perfect soldier. Intelligent, agile, strong, and obedient. They botched up the last part a little bit. In 2302 the European countries decided to form a union and invaded Asia, creating the mass of fearsome warriors from Eurasia. Meanwhile it had been 10 years sine the countries of South America and North America had untied under the nation of the Americas. A soon as news of the fighting in Asia spread to the Americas they became involved, fighting for the independence of the Asian countries. They lost, and the Asian countries were slowly engulfed by the mass of Eurasia. 15 years later the fighting still continued, as he last of the landmasses, was fought over. Africa. Rich with natural resources and plenty of land. Eurasia wanted it. They wanted the world. But the Americas wanted it as well. The two powerhouses fought on the continent for 15 years, each gaining and losing territories. There was no end in sight, and Emma had begun to lose hope. She knew that she would eventually have to fight. But that was only if they could ever find a way to make her. Through the past months they had been trying new liquids in her IV's and new pills they made her take each day. They were trying to make her obedient. Brainwash her.

Her only escape from the cruel world she was born into was night. That was usually when she tried to escape. There was less security and she could usually take down the ten guards they had within fifteen minutes. But I required weeks of planning. They changed the schedules every few months or so. Emma had most of them memorized. She knew when they came and when they went. She knew who came and went. And most of all she knew where they went. The only one of them she trusted was the nurse she knew only by her first name, Lil. Lil fed her information about the war and about the outside world. But Emma could barley trust what she was told. The Americas heavily censored what information they told their citizens, often changing it in order to seem like they were the good guys. But no one seemed to notice. They were all brainwashed into submission. And they were trying to brainwash Emma as well.

The day Emma woke up from her coma Lil came in to check on her. She shuffled through the door with the fresh bed sheets and her head down. Her plain nurses clothes matched her confidence level. Little to nothing. She didn't want to stand out, and neither did anyone else in that awful place. She put the sheets down on a chair and ushered Emma out of the bed, sitting her down in another chair by the opposite wall.

" You woke early. We weren't expecting you to wake so soon." She talked as if she were a doctor. Everyone did. As if they were not an individual. But part of a large group where they only served as a piece to the larger puzzle. Replaceable. Nothing special.

" They don't control when I wake."

" We do, more than you would like to think."

There was a long pause as she began to strip the bead.

" You can't keep doing this. We're beginning to worry."

"Why can't they show me the world, then? I have a right to see what I'm being engineered for."

"We aren't engineering you. We're conditioning you. And only the select few citizens ever get to see outside of their towns. And they usually work in the government. I only get to see my town and the hospital."

" Why do you call it a hospital? I know I'm the only one here. Its more of a lab if you ask me."

" We call it a hospital because we are helping you. Many years ago hospitals were places where sick people went to get better. Now, they are places where special people go to get improved. We made the original concept better."

" So there are more than just me. They're testing on others. In different spots around the Americas?"

" Like I said, I don't know. I've never been outside of the town."

" What would happen if you did?"

" The government would come and find us. But we would never do anything like that."

" But it's not illegal?"

"Well, technically not, but no one has ever done it, so we don not."

" But there always has to be a first. Otherwise you would all just stay the same."

" We don't question what the government says, we trust they know what they are doing, and follow them. You certainly are feeling independent today, aren't you?"

" I did just try to run away."

" That was several weeks ago."

" Time passes differently for me."

She smiled and picked up the old sheets and leaving the room. Emma sat back down into bed, closed her eyes and tried to remember what life had been like before. Before all the tests and all the experiments. Before the war. She let her mind drift as the painful memories dissipated into a dull numbness and she finally let sleep engulf her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tyler woke us with a shock; sweat dripping down his forehead breathing heavily as he regained focus on the world around him. He felt for his backpack next to him feeling over the tree roots and rocks. He slowly stood up, leaning against the tree he had slept on the previous night. The pain in his leg still had not receded and his leg began to throb as he inspected the wound, now caked with dry blood. He could barely recall the incident two nights ago, an all he could remember were the people, and their dogs. He remembered running, then standing on a cliff and trying to jump but they had gotten to his wings. They shot them. Yes, it wasn't the dogs. It was their guns. Tyler slowly began to recall the night with vivid accuracy.

He had been on the run for four weeks, and they had finally caught up with him. He had tried to stick to flying, but the few days he had to walk were brutal. They were slow and agonizing, as he barely made twenty miles in a day. Flying her could make fifty, easily. But he had decided to stop and get food at a truck stop along the interstate, and that nearly cost him his life. The security cameras, he realized, they must have used the footage in order to find him.

And find him they did. Tyler began to remember running from the diner by the stop, running into the woods on the other side of the interstate. It was dark. So very dark there, and he must have not seen the flashlights following him. They had found him within a matter of minutes. And he had begun to run after he heard their dogs. While he was running one of them took a gun, Tyler heard them load it, and shot him. The bullet penetrated his right wing, and soon he was overcome with pain. He kept running in agonizing pain until he came to the cliff. They had him surrounded, and were ready to release the dogs, which were practically foaming at the mouth. He turned to them with a sense of defiance that obviously set them on edge. They smirked at him with the same knowing looks before they let go of their dogs. One quickly lashed out on Tyler, and bit into his leg, leaving a deep gash. He struggled to fight off the animals before tumbling over the cliff and spreading his hut wings and clumsily maneuvering through the air, before loosing altitude and crashing into the trees below.

Tyler shook as he remembered the incident with startling accuracy. He had always hated his ability to relive memories with all of the emotions he had had the first time, including the pain. He hated the fact that he was a genetically modified freak who was only alive to serve the governments wishes. Something he refused to do. He would never lie down and let them walk all over him. He was going to fight. He had stood up to them and had survived. Barely. At least they knew that he was not going to stop fighting. And in those last few months he spent at the LAB he had found out so much. He knew that there we others. Others like him that the government was creating. They were trying to find the genetic code to create the perfect soldier. Obedient. Strong. Fast. Able to take orders. Invincible. But so far they hadn't succeeded. And they had tried five times. Tyler knew his only chance to win against them would be to find them. All of them that they hadn't killed yet, that is. He knew that they were planning to kill him. He had overheard two doctors talking about his termination over lunch, as if it were a lighthearted issue that they would decide. They decided he had become to rowdy; that he had begun to think for himself, and to criticize the government. They knew he would become a threat to their power. So he had to be killed. Tyler escaped three days after he found out that he was going to be killed. After he realized they were drugging his food in order to make him submit to the tests and the shots.

But right now Tyler could only think of one thing. And that was finding the others. He knew that there was one in Maine, and another in Vancouver. He knew that there was a third in Mexico City but he had no idea where the fourth one was- if they hadn't killed him or her yet. He was also worried with whether they knew about him, or the fact that they were being created to be a soldier. They could be totally ignorant of these facts and could possibly refuse to leave. All Tyler knew was that he had to keep running just keep moving until he found at least one of the others. And he had his targets set on the one closest to him, the girl in Maine.

Tyler took one last look at the forest around him before beginning to pack up the small backpack he had stolen from a store a few towns back. He slung it over his shoulder with surprising force, as Tyler had not anticipated the miniscule weight of the backpack compared to other things he had been created to lift. He inhaled deeply, turning to look back at the forest before he shot off into the night, ready for whatever might be ahead of him.


End file.
